Another Idiot lives to tell about it

As most of you know I drive a Gas Truck. Full-sized semi-truck and trailer. I drive many hours/miles a day hauling a bomb so I'm very careful in how I drive. I average 100,000 miles a year. Because of the many hours, I spend on the road, the percentage of me being involved in an accident is higher than most. Again...Another wreck that could have been avoided.

If you have been watching the news you seen how my area (Colorado) got hammered with Snow, Ice, and wind yesterday. Even today we have roads closed everywhere. I managed to make it thru my workday dealing with the ice and white-out conditions. Driving slowly all day with chains on the tires and Spikes on my boots. It makes for a miserable day at work.

I got off the highway and came to a stop at the light at the end of the off-ramp. When the light turned green I proceeded to go forward making my left-hand turn under the interstate to head to the yard when a new F450 duly blew through the light and slammed into the axles of my trailer. Totaled his new truck and my trailer. My trailer had to be lifted and put onto a trailer to haul away. Because of the concrete sides of the bridge on the interstate, he couldn't see me waiting at the light and I couldn't see him coming. After I was out in the intersection I saw him and there was nothing I could do. He had sped up to try to get through the light even though it had already turned red. Plus the fact that the road was a sheet of ice, there was no stopping him then.

So, To all my friends here on SRP and their family members and friends, Please don't run red lights, and follow the rules of the road. When the conditions of the road are bad, please slow down and think before doing anything. When the light turns red it's only going to cost you another minute in time. Not worth the chance of dying for! This guy now has an F450 truck payment and no truck plus the cost of my trailer at 120 thousand bucks. I know his insurance will pay but still. I bet he has a hard time paying for insurance anymore and he is thanking God he didn't kill his passenger or me or himself for doing such a stupid move.

Be careful my friends. A few seconds or a couple of minutes are not worth dying for. Luckily the company I work for will get me a new trailer. I won't have to buy one as I drive their equipment. I will have to drag around a POS trailer for a few months until a new one is made for me and that sucks! But I'm alive and not having to go to any funerals. In the past 3 years, I've been in 4 wrecks caused by the other driver. I still have a clean driving record and nobody has died, yet!

Stay safe my friends!

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Originally Posted by Gasman

As most of you know I drive a Gas Truck. Full-sized semi-truck and trailer. I drive many hours/miles a day hauling a bomb so I'm very careful in how I drive. I average 100,000 miles a year. Because of the many hours, I spend on the road, the percentage of me being involved in an accident is higher than most. Again...Another wreck that could have been avoided.

If you have been watching the news you seen how my area (Colorado) got hammered with Snow, Ice, and wind yesterday. Even today we have roads closed everywhere. I managed to make it thru my workday dealing with the ice and white-out conditions. Driving slowly all day with chains on the tires and Spikes on my boots. It makes for a miserable day at work.

I got off the highway and came to a stop at the light at the end of the off-ramp. When the light turned green I proceeded to go forward making my left-hand turn under the interstate to head to the yard when a new F450 duly blew through the light and slammed into the axles of my trailer. Totaled his new truck and my trailer. My trailer had to be lifted and put onto a trailer to haul away. Because of the concrete sides of the bridge on the interstate, he couldn't see me waiting at the light and I couldn't see him coming. After I was out in the intersection I saw him and there was nothing I could do. He had sped up to try to get through the light even though it had already turned red. Plus the fact that the road was a sheet of ice, there was no stopping him then.

So, To all my friends here on SRP and their family members and friends, Please don't run red lights, and follow the rules of the road. When the conditions of the road are bad, please slow down and think before doing anything. When the light turns red it's only going to cost you another minute in time. Not worth the chance of dying for! This guy now has an F450 truck payment and no truck plus the cost of my trailer at 120 thousand bucks. I know his insurance will pay but still. I bet he has a hard time paying for insurance anymore and he is thanking God he didn't kill his passenger or me or himself for doing such a stupid move.

Be careful my friends. A few seconds or a couple of minutes are not worth dying for. Luckily the company I work for will get me a new trailer. I won't have to buy one as I drive their equipment. I will have to drag around a POS trailer for a few months until a new one is made for me and that sucks! But I'm alive and not having to go to any funerals. In the past 3 years, I've been in 4 wrecks caused by the other driver. I still have a clean driving record and nobody has died, yet!

Stay safe my friends!

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It sucks getting hit but I'm glad you're OK.

I've only had one wreck, I was crossing 3 near Windsor ON, this crossroads didn't have traffic lights and it was a dual carriageway where I was crossing.

I didn't realize at the time but that particular crossroads was a real accident black-spot, there was a wreck there the week before mine and a motorbike had one the week after which killed the rider.

Anyway there is an invisible spot for traffic on 3 there, it is a dip in the road where no cars are visible for about 2 seconds.

I looked left, no traffic so I proceeded to the central reservation area where i stopped to check for traffic from the right. No traffic so i proceeded to cross and clear 3. The blind spot dip, I ended up T-Boning a pickup doing about 100 KM (60mph). Our car was a write off, the pickup was a write off. My wife and I spent a month in Hospital, I got 3 points for failing to stop and a $40 dollar charge for the Ambulance plus a $1200 charge for the fire dept.

Thankfully the fire dept was covered by the insurance, plus my physio etc.

I agree 100% with you Jerry, more haste less speed and I will add from my own experience, look right look left and don't assume anything when your driving because you probably already know that every other driver on the road is determined to kill you!

Glad you are not hurt. I was worried about you when I heard the weather. That's when I emailed you. So glad I am down south now. Don't miss all those years driving in snow and ice.
Your trailer can be replaced. You can not. Be careful and stay safe.

all the stuff I see every day of people doing wrong or not following the rules. It's a scary thing. Everyone thinks about themselves only. It's a shame.

And thanks for the email, Leonard. It's always welcome. This is the job I picked to do so I don't worry too much about what I do. I just live with it and try not to think too hard about it or the dangers.

I saw that you just had quite a storm.
Been watching the weather and thinking about you and Victor.
Thank God everyone is ok.

Pete <:-}

Glad you're ok Jerry. I doubt that the guy who ran the red light will have learned a thing.

I've been in a head on, a roll over and a T-bone and was a passenger in all three. The head on was a drunk gal coming into town at 60 mph, crossed the center line and hit my buddy's '55 dead head on. He'd bought it 5 hours before we got hit. When I came to I saw a guy get out of the other car and take off running. We found out later he was cheating on his wife with the gal driving. Spent a week in the hospital and my knees, back and neck were never the same.

The rollover was in a '48 Plymouth, the kid had a 283 in it and a mid '50's rear end and he hadn't bothered getting the emergency brake operational. We were coming down a steep gravel road and the single cylinder brake gave out. He almost made the corner but not quite. When the car stopped rolling my right arm was pinned under the car. The owner and the other guy in the car knew where the other guy's dad had a truck in a nearby field and the ran and got it and pulled the car off of me. Just had to spend the night in the hospital, no broken bones just really bruised up.

The T-bone was in a friend's butt ugly four door Ford Fairlane. I was in the back seat with my date and I actually watched the gal run the stop sign and hit us and it was on my side. There was an off duty sheriff's deputy right behind her and had been following her waiting to bust her for running another stop sign just outside of town.

I always keep my eyes open when I'm on the road whether it's in a cage or on the Iron Horse and it's saved my ass more times than I care to think about.

Glad you are fine and that you were driving what you were driving. Imagine if it was some family in a small car. They would probably be gone.

From a truck drivers point of view is an empty tanker harder to control and maybe more of a "bomb"?

Wondering with less weight in the tank for traction and vapor in an empty one.:hmmm:

As you can see I don't have my CDL.

Holy crap Jerry! Damn, I'm glad you're okay. I don't drive the miles you do but I do drive more than I work and in a college town where half the population is still 10 feet tall and bullet proof. I too see people every single day do the most grossly negligent things. I just shake my head and think, "are you kidding me with that?" I'd say they're not even thinking only of themselves. If they were they would avoid that kind of wrecklessness. I think they just think blindly in the moment with no regard for anything past the moment they're in. Hey, if you want to kill yourself go ahead but leave me out if it.
Man, take care Jerry. I hope you at least got to slap the shit out of him.

Yes, Tim. You are correct.
With so much less weight on the tires (Keep in mind the entire trailer except for axles are aluminum) and the fact that I run the super single tires (one tire as wide a two). The trailer is harder to keep in line with the truck. Now it's not going to blow away, as the sides are round and that helps with winds. But when the F450 hit me in the axle it did shove the trailer sideways some on the ice.

Also, when unloading fuel into a tank, the government says I must collect the gas fumes coming out. As you know, when a liquid goes in, fumes come out. So the tanker is full of gas fumes. These are taken back to the loading facility. And when the next load goes into the trailer, the fumes are collected and burned. So again you are correct, Tim.
My trailer is more likely to go BOOM when emply. When loaded it will spring a leak. But that's another type of problem.

Here is just a quick picture I snapped to keep insurance happy...
Attachment 330554Attachment 330555

Before I came to Canada I was a train driver.

We had to learn various emergency procedures and hazard load rules.

I remember learning about flammable and other hazardous tank wagons.

We were taught that it's not the liquid in the tanks that the problem, like Jerry said they would just leak.

The danger is heat, the effect is what they called a BLEVE. Boiling Liquid Escaping Vapour Explosion, that's why you always see the fire department trying to keep propane tanks etc cool.

Even Gasoline isn't actually flammable, the fumes are.

In the army we used to put our fags out in diesel to freak the newbies out.

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Originally Posted by Gasman

Here is just a quick picture I snapped to keep insurance happy...
Attachment 330554Attachment 330555

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Thank the lucky stars that you sit a long way from those trailer axles.

So happy you’re OK Gasman. You’ve had more than your share of close calls and actual collisions.

It’s not the weather that causes the accidents, it’s the fools behind the wheel who ignore the conditions or think they can beat a light or simply feel that the rules don’t apply to them.

Stay safe.

Damn Jerry! Glad you are okay. It is good that what could have been, was not.

40 years in the oil patch, trust me, mostly empty and full of fumes makes for biggest bang, but I digress, glad your ok, it’s just a little bomb Jerry so don’t worry about it too much, my Rv was usually set up on a pad with 10,000 bbls of the good stuff and gas plant sending several million cubic feet of natural. Never once worried, if it went I wouldn’t know.

So glad you weren’t badly hurt Jerry. People don’t believe it can ever be them in the accident, until it is. Seems like lots of folks I see on the road are in so much of a hurry to get somewhere that they forget they’re driving a lethal weapon.

TC Said... if it went I wouldn’t know.

That's kinda what I tell the wife. She doesn't like to hear it but my version of that is...
I might have enough time to say, OH SH..! then it's all over.

I'm a little surprised nobody gave any trouble about the picture I posted with my finger in it. :rofl2:

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Originally Posted by Gasman

I'm a little surprised nobody gave any trouble about the picture I posted with my finger in it. :rofl2:

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I figured that was the middle one you were showing to that guy.

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Originally Posted by Gasman

TC Said... if it went I wouldn’t know.

That's kinda what I tell the wife. She doesn't like to hear it but my version of that is...
I might have enough time to say, OH SH..! then it's all over.

I'm a little surprised nobody gave any trouble about the picture I posted with my finger in it. :rofl2:

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I would never want to see you and your bomb on wheels go BOOM.

With that said, if it were to happen, I would hope that you indeed wouldn't know what happened and died instantly.

This woman wasn't so lucky. I can't find the original article but I believe she was inside the burning vehicle about 20 seconds.

She passed away in 2019 from cancer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9p5-wxwWY0&t=10s

Yea you never know with fire and explosions. If you are in a situation like that you hope for a quick end but sometimes depending on how it blows you can literally walk away from it or burn to death for a few minutes or just be instantly vaporized.

It's a lottery I wouldn't want to be in.

A Little Update...
I've been told that the other guy's insurance company is not going to cough up 120 grand for me a new trailer. Being this one is only a year old they plan on fixing it. I guess it would be cheaper to fix it. It's going to take 2.5 to 3 months before I get it back. I can only hope they do it right and it tracks down the road properly when they are done. Although it's not like "I" have to buy the tires if they wear-out prematurely because of a tweaked frame or something.

In the meantime, they hooked me up with a 2015 model. Its got most of the bells and whistles that make fuel hauling better. I've been going through a few details with the shop on things that need to be done to get it working properly plus its yearly inspection is in need in two weeks. It's like the new class of fuel haulers now a day have no clue when something is right or needs to be fixed. Kids. :shrug:

Do you have an ejection seat in your rig? If not, maybe you should consider one.....

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Originally Posted by Johntoad57

Do you have an ejection seat in your rig? If not, maybe you should consider one.....

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Now which was that James Bond movie where he ejects the bad guy sitting next to him?

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Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Now which was that James Bond movie where he ejects the bad guy sitting next to him?

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I forget but I think it was Roger Moore as Bond in that one....